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Argentina’s Democratic Regression under the Javier Milei Administration: A Theoretical and Empirical Application of the Competitive Authoritarianism Framework
Dalarna University, School of Culture and Society.
2025 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

This thesis examines the challenges that Argentina's democracy has faced under the presidency of Javier Milei, who took office in December 2023 as a political outsider promising radical change with a strong anti-establishment approach and an ultra-liberal right platform aimed at implementing economic reforms. By adopting the competitive authoritarian framework developed by Levitsky and Way, this study examines the impact of Milei's reforms and populist leadership on the four arenas outlined in the framework: the electoral, judicial, legislative, and media. By adopting a qualitative case study approach, the research focuses on assessing how Argentina has shown signs of democratic backsliding since the inauguration of Javier Milei's presidency. The findings show that although Argentina still enjoys free and fair elections, other core aspects of its democracy have been undergrowing pressure since Javier Milei took office. During the brief period of Javier Mileis's government, it is not possible to establish a causal mechanism within the competitive authoritarian framework due to the government's short period and the ongoing political developments. Although tendencies to bypass institutional checks and legislative oversight, increase surveillance mechanisms, implement repressive laws, and constantly attack civil society and the press align with several warning signs of competitive authoritarian tendencies. This thesis contributes to the academic debate on competitive authoritarianism in Latin America under right-wing populist leadership by providing evidence-based insights into a country that, since its transition in 1984, has been seen as upholding strong democratic principles but is now facing challenges to their maintenance.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025.
Keywords [en]
Competitive authoritarianism, Argentina, Javier Milei, democratic backsliding, Populism
National Category
Political Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:du-51035OAI: oai:DiVA.org:du-51035DiVA, id: diva2:1987694
Subject / course
Political Science
Available from: 2025-08-07 Created: 2025-08-07 Last updated: 2025-10-09

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • chicago-author-date
  • chicago-note-bibliography
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf